Fudging the Facts on a Résumé Is Common, and Also a Big Risk

By DAVID KOEPPEL

Published: April 23, 2006

Lying on a r?m?o enhance a mediocre educational or employment record is hardly new. But several recent surveys, as well as anecdotal reports from hiring managers and recruiters, indicate that r?m?alsehoods are on the rise, and that they are just as likely to come from high-profile chief executives as recent college graduates.

A Brooklyn administrative assistant was recently caught turning a two-day stint as an office temp into an 18-month job as a data entry operator. The fabrication was discovered when the applicant sent her r?m?o Margaret Johnson, director of operations for MetSchools, an organization that serves children in New York City with special needs.

On her r?m?the applicant asserted that from 2000 to 2002 she was employed by Women for Hire, a Manhattan-based organization that coordinates job fairs around the country -- and whose chief executive, coincidentally, is Ms. Johnson's sister-in-law, Tory Johnson.

''She immediately called me to ask what I had to say about this woman, and I said I never heard of her,'' Tory Johnson said. ''I was stunned by her arrogance.''

The applicant received a pointed e-mail retort from Margaret Johnson.

Misrepresentations like this are becoming increasingly common, job experts say. A study conducted by ResumeDoctor.com, a r?m?riting service based in Burlington, Vt., found that 43 percent of the more than 1,100 r?m?examined had one or more ''significant inaccuracies,'' while 13 percent had two or more.

Michael Worthington, the co-founder of ResumeDoctor, said the most common r?m?ransgressions could be found in three areas: education, job title and dates of employment.

Mr. Worthington and other job experts insist that job seekers can sell themselves successfully without resorting to exaggeration and half-truths.

Gaps in employment, both short term and long term, can be more easily explained than in the past, Mr. Worthington said. Losing a job to downsizing or layoffs has less of a stigma, and many employers are more sympathetic to time off taken for personal and family reasons.

Job candidates who have not graduated from college or completed work toward a higher degree should not try to fudge it, the experts say. A r?m?hould indicate if applicants are a few credits short and when and if they plan to complete the degree.

Some job seekers claim job titles they never had, even though they performed many of the duties the title might suggest. The solution, some hiring managers say, is not to say you were a producer if you were an associate producer, but to stress that you had the responsibilities and duties of a producer.

R?m?mbellishers may also want to refrain from lies for the simple reason that it is easier than ever to catch cheating. A simple Google search can often turn up a wealth of information on a prospective employee. A 2005 survey conducted by the Society for Human Resource Management showed that 40 percent of human resource professionals had increased the time they spent checking references since 2002, and 52 percent said they contracted out at least part of the background checking to professionals.

So why risk lying on your r?m?And why does the phenomenon seem more prevalent than in the past?

Hiring managers cite a myriad of reasons. Many people are desperate and feel financial pressure to land a job, while some are confident that ''white lies'' will not be discovered. Karen N. Danziger, executive vice president of the Howard-Sloan-Koller Group, a New York recruiting agency for media and publishing professionals, suspects that job seekers have adopted a mentality of ''if they can do it, I can do it,'' given the prevalence of cheating.

Rafet Kaplan, the Northeast bureau chief for the Fox News Channel, who has been responsible for hiring at several companies, said: ''I think it's a baseline insecurity. They want to look and feel better about themselves.'' He said his company conducted extensive background checks to root out r?m?revaricators.

Steven A. Miranda, the chief human resource and strategic planning officer for the Society for Human Resource Management, says that a skilled interviewer who digs deep enough will be able to identify job candidates who have misrepresented themselves on their r?m?

But he acknowledges that some candidates fall through the cracks. He points to a number of recent r?m?adders, like David J. Edmondson, the former chief executive of RadioShack, who claimed college degrees he did not have, and Bausch & Lomb's chairman and chief executive, Ronald L. Zarrella, who falsely claimed to have an M.B.A.

But many ordinary workers say they believe that some exaggerations are necessary to survive in a brutally competitive job market. A 36-year-old office manager from Brooklyn, who insisted on anonymity, justified her own r?m?isrepresentations as a form of self-preservation.

''I have some misleading things on my r?m?' she acknowledged. ''I didn't graduate from college; I'm nine credits short of a degree. In my mind, I have a college education, just not a degree, and I shouldn't be penalized for that.''

On her r?m?he lists the college she attended without dates of attendance or graduation. She said that if asked, she would admit that she did not have her degree, but added that so far she had not been asked.

Few human resource employees or hiring professionals would sympathize with her or anyone else with a misleading r?m?

Mr. Kaplan recalled his own experience interviewing a candidate who lied on his r?m?bout completing college. He said he wanted to hire the person, but a background check revealed that the applicant had barely attended the college. Mr. Kaplan noted that a college diploma was not required for the job, but the misrepresentation became a deal-breaker.

Ms. Danziger of Howard-Sloan-Koller has noted a sharp increase in r?m?xaggeration and errors of omission that she says can in part be attributed to job candidates' over-reliance on professional r?m?riters. In an effort to make their clients more marketable, there is a tendency for the writers to ''cover up the rough spots,'' she said.

''There's usually a lot of hyperbole,'' Ms. Danziger says about such r?m? ''A lot of buzzwords. It just feels dishonest.''

Tory Johnson of Women for Hire said: ''Nobody wants to be seen as having a mediocre track record. It's human nature to want to be seen in the best possible light, as long as it doesn't cross the line. Everything has to be in verifiable territory.''

Photo: Tory Johnson of Women for Hire says résumés can be flattering, but only if verifiable. (Photo by Ruby Washington/The New York Times)